October 16, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] Polus BioPharm said on Feb. 26 that it will issue convertible bonds worth 20 billion won (US$18.60 million) to spur its production of a biosimilar candidate referencing Sanofi’s insulin treatment for diabetes. 

The company will use the proceeds to complete a new manufacturing plant for its affiliated firm Polus, which will begin producing a copy version of Sanofi’s diabetes treatment Lantus for clinical trials there. The firm will also file for an Investigational New Drug application with the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency for Lantus. 

“We plan to expand our market share by offering up to a 50 percent discount compared to the original drug,” a Polus official said. 

Polus is mainly focused on the development of first-generation biosimilar products such as human growth hormone and insulin therapies. Its drug pipeline includes copy versions of Eli Lilly’s insulin product Humalog, Novo Nordisk’s human growth hormone drug Norditropin and Roche eye drug Lucentis.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)